


Ambrosia

by ELISE_ELEVEN



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Ancient Greece, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Comfort, Curse Breaking, Curses, Dark Past, Drama, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, First Kiss, First Love, First Time, Fluff, Gods, Happy Ending, Historical, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Oral Sex, Princess Rey (Star Wars), Rape/Non-con Elements, Romance, Sexy Times, Smut, Soulmates, Suicide Attempt, Tragic Romance, True Love, Vaginal Sex, greek tragedy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 03:50:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17655536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ELISE_ELEVEN/pseuds/ELISE_ELEVEN
Summary: There was a statue in the very center of the space that had been there forever. No one knew when it arrived or from whence it came. No one claimed to have carved it and no one could remember a time when it didn’t stand there, casting fear into the hearts of all who looked upon it; all those except the Princess.





	1. The Statue

She arose with the sun. Garbed in gossamer of every color and silk of pearls with ropes of diamonds at her throat and scraping the ground at the hem of her cloak, the princess ran barefoot down the halls of cream marble and thick, crimson, velvet curtains. Great stone pillars lined her path. And she danced with their shadows. 

At the top of a hill, at the center of the city, sat the palace, a white and gold pinnacle, a monument to the gods. From this place the princess could see the entire city, of which her family ruled. As she ran, the perfume of a thousand variants of flowers and a million more fruits floated up from the hanging gardens on the hill below. On the days when the sun was warmest and the discord in her father’s courtroom was loudest, Reyna found herself in her favorite place. 

The small round dais was roofless and encircled in thin pillars that reached towards the heavens. The space was empty besides a bench, a pool, and a statue. 

If this were like any other courtyard, it would be decorated with many fountains, hewn from stone basins twice the size of a man and sculpted with scenes of beasts and myths. There would be flowers and trees and vines entwining every pillar and seat. The floors would be draped in the furs of beasts long ago slain, with great cats lounging in the shadows as the men and women feasted and drank and bathed together in the fountain’s waters. But this dais was quiet and empty because this dais was feared. 

There was a statue in the very center of the space that had been there forever. No one knew when it arrived or from whence it came. No one claimed to have carved it and no one could remember a time when it didn’t stand there, casting fear into the hearts of all who looked upon it; all those besides the princess. 

The statue was chiseled form pure white stone and showed no sign of weathering or discoloring. He was larger than any man she’d ever seen, but not large as most statues that were scattered throughout the palace and across the city, those that depicted gods. Through his visage could match one. He was beautiful. His hair hung around his face in long waves and his face was smooth with youth. He crouched in on himself, bent at the waist, arms hanging limp at his sides. His head was bent forward so that his hair fell into his eyes, brows furrowed together in sorrow, pain written clearly across his features as if he had never known joy. The man was naked aside from the sword clasped in his left fist where it dragged the ground. 

But it wasn’t the nakedness that kept people away, nearly every sculpture in the city depicted the naked human form, some in graphic positions, twisted together with mouths open in ecstasy, but it was the story behind its arrival that brought fear into their hearts. And the story, told so many times there was no way of knowing its true version, went something like this: 

There had been young man, a prince, who lived all his days in the sun, danced with maidens, and hunted the most elusive beasts. He had grown strong under the guidance of his father and had grown wise under the guidance of the gods. They favored the royal family and the young prince most of all, and heaped blessings upon them. But one day, the prince did something that displeased the god of wrath and revenge. And as a punishment, the god cast upon the prince a curse that caused him to slay his entire family. In a horrible rage, the possessed man tore through the palace, killing everyone of his relations and then took to the city, slicing down any person who shared his blood. Because the royal family was gone, the land went into chaos, a great famine came, and the people were driven away.

When he awoke from his rage and found what he had done, the prince was overcome by a sorrow greater than any every felt before. So, he fell down into a hollow of the earth and began to weep. He wept until his tears had become a pool and swallowed him up. But the other gods, having pity on the young man, withheld death from him, turning his skin to stone and casting his mind into a sleep deeper than death. 

So, the stone man climbed from his watery grave and came to rest beside the pool, awaiting the day when the earth would wear him to dust. It was said that on the nights when the moon was full, only in the hour when the santifumn flower bloomed, tears would fall from the eyes of the statue, as he came half awake and remembered what he had done.

The princess had been coming to this place ever since she was young. While others dared not come near, worrying his curse might become theirs, never once had she been afraid of the statue. She did not know his name or the sound of his voice, but still she considered him a friend. He was her only companion in the long hours of the day, when she stretched out on the bench to read from story scrolls or nap, and when she awakened in the middle of the night and could not quiet her mind. This was her place of solace and he was her special friend. 

As the years passed, he became her only friend. All the others from her youth were long gone and the other maidens that had become her friends were quickly married off to the noble men of the court. Reyna was not in such a hurry to be married. She preferred a quiet life in the palace, bathing in the springs and pools hidden down corridors, or gather scrolls that recounted fables and myths from the library, or dancing barefoot through the gardens, picking and drinking down the juiciest and most delicate of fruits. She enjoyed her garments of silk and gold and the rich meats and deserts that this life granted her, but she did not want any of the power. 

Alas, there was no choice for her in this matter. On the day she came of age, her Father, the Emperor, presented her with her first suitor. After the meeting had gone poorly, Reyna went to her Father and begged him not to bring anymore to meet her. But he reminded her in solemn tones that she was his only daughter and therefore, would someday be Empress. She must have a man to rule at her side. That was law, and he demanded it be upheld. 

And so, came a long line of suitors, each more stuffy and groveling than the last. Each time, a private room would be prepared for them with a feast and soft lighting, she would go in to him and they would eat and converse. But she wanted none of these men, these men who weren’t at all interested in her, only in the power and position of becoming emperor. She did not hide her disinterest from them, for she could see past their masks of charm and sincerity to the greed beneath. And each time, when the suitor had left, the Emperor would call her to him and inquire as to the nature of the visit. The response was the same every time. And each time he was displeased. At first it manifested with just a sigh, then a growl, then scream of rage as he smashed goblets and dishes to the ground. 

“Get out.” He yelled after the twenty-fifth time. “You are the worst of daughters. You bring no pleasure to my heart and my soul despairs every time I look upon thy face. Word spreads of thy witless spirit and charmless conversation. Too soon, there will not be a man left to want you. Be gone from here, useless child, before it is thee that I break upon this floor! With terror and shame in her heart, she rushed from the room and back to her chambers. 

But the night was cool, and her body was feverish with worry and questions. So, Princess Reyna donned a silken white robe over her naked body and ran, as she so often did, to the courtyard with the statue.

When she passed into the circle of columns and their shadows, she half expected him to be sitting on the bench, waiting for her. But the stone man stood as he always had, unmoving in center of the circular floor. 

Reyna reached out and ran a hand along the smooth curve of his shoulder. “I wonder”, she mused as she wandered in a slow circle around him, fingertips outstretched to run along his back and chest, “What you would have been like when you lived in the world of men.” 

She meets his gaze. “I would bet you were kind.” She surveys his eyes, hooded in sorrow, fixed on the ground. When she was younger, she’d tried to guess their color and it his hair had been golden or dark. Now, gazing into them, a revelation comes to her. Dark, they were dark, and his hair as well. Dark and deep as the skies at the blackest hour of the night. 

“From thy eyes, I can see. You were kind and passionate. You were wise and talented, and quiet, thoughtful. You were greater than all the men who my Father brings to me. Never, would you marry a woman who you did not adore with all of your being. Never would you marry a woman for her power.” 

She lifted a fingertip to one eye and then the other. “You were better than any of those who live today in the world of men. Better than my Father, better than I. Would you hunger for power; surely not. But, never would you shirk the responsibility that was given you.” 

Reyna sunk to her knees on the patch of stone where his eyes had been settled for eternity; and sighed. “I know I have a great responsibility to the people of this land, to be their leader, to marry. But my heart quakes at the thought. I fear, I am not strong enough. And yet, I fear, even more, the thought of marrying one of these men, with their selfish hearts and wicked lusts. I can scarce look upon these faces, even worse to let one into my bed and sit at my side for as long as the gods grant us life.” 

Urgency rising in her voice, Reyna rises to one knee and grasps the cold, stone hand in both of her own. “I wish greatly that you were here with me now. You would be wise enough to guide me in this moment of indecision. You were wise. I can see it in thine eyes and in the crease of thy brow.” But the statue stood motionless and silent above her. With a sigh, she climbed to her feet, turning to gaze at the night sky. 

The young princess lifted clasped hands to towards the stars. “Artemis, goddess of maidens, Athena, goddess of wisdom, thy servant begs for guidance and sight where I cannot see the path ahead.” The sky remained quiet, but Reyna began to feel just the slightest bit better. Her eyes fell upon the moon and a realization hit her; the moon was full. 

It had been many months since the last time she had checked, for every time she became disheartened, but perhaps tonight… 

Whipping around, she searched the stone man’s face for those fabled tears. With the moonlight glinting on the marble, she thought just maybe… Hope surged in her chest. But when she ran a trembling finger below his eyelid, she found it dryer than bone. A sigh escaped her lips. Even if she had found tears, she wouldn’t know how to reach him of how to free him. But at least if there are been tears, she would have known for certain there was someone buried deep inside, that she had not only been talking to herself all of these years. 

Her eyes dropped to his lips, unearthly full and so smooth they almost seemed real. Her fingertip skimmed down his cheek, onto his parted lips. She ran it over and over his bottom lip, caressing it fascination. Reyna had been surrounded by kissing all her life, it was almost everyday that she stumbled across a couple of two or more in some secret alcove of the palace, entangling lips and limbs or writhing and bouncing in each other’s arms, but she had never thought much about doing it herself. Years ago, she’d begun to experiment, but it never felt especially exciting to her. She hadn’t kissed anyone in many months. 

As she surveyed those lips, she thought, if men who lived had lips like these, she would never stop kissing them.

…

The days past and her Father did not speak to her, but he also sent her no more suitors. Though she missed his favor, she did not miss terrible company of those tedious visits. The princess kept to herself and stayed far from the Emperor’s courtroom. 

But, the night came that she could no longer avoid his presence. A great feast, the feast of Dionysus, that overflowed with wine, revelry, and fair maidens with large breasts. When Reyna found her place at his side, her father did not look at her. “Thou will be courteous and gay tonight”, he instructed in a soft, stern voice. “We must rebuild your crumbling reputation. Let down your hair and dance with the others.” 

But, she did not dance. The princess sat with a fake smile fixed to her lips, dining on the finery until she could stomach no more and swallowed down all manner of cool wines. All about her, the ladies and young men danced, and the Emperor and Empress laughed and joked with the people of the court. Clothes and goblets flashed in the light of the fire in the braziers. 

Reyna began to feel ill. Always, she enjoyed these feasts, the meal, the music, and the most delectable wines, but this night she could not ignore the stares. Her Father had been correct; her former suitors had not been tight-lipped about the awkward meetings and her unpleasantness.

She began to lift her goblet to her lips for another long draft, when a hand shot out and clasped painfully around her wrist. The Emperor glared at her, gripping until she was forced to drop the glass to the table top. She stared at him, shock and hurt mixing in her gaze. “That is quite enough wine.” His tone was deathly quiet and so filled with rage it made her heart clench. He starred her down one long moment and then released her, returning to his jovial conversation as if nothing had happened. 

Tears pricking her eyes, Reyna held her throbbing wrist in her hand beneath the table and starred down at the half-finished pheasant leg on her plate. Hundreds of eyes were upon her. She did not need to look so see them; she could feel each gaze piercing her. She must not cry in their presence. She must never show weakness, for these unforgiving people would never forget. Not even when she was queen and ruled them all, would they forget her tears. 

Silently, with burning cheeks and head bent, she rose from her cushion on the floor and walked stiffly from the banqueting hall. The hallways rang with the sounds of revelers. She tried to ignore the stares. In an alcove near her chambers, she suddenly came upon a pair of guests. They lay naked on the marble. The face of the man was buried between the woman’s legs and she moaned, yanking on his golden locks. The princess froze in at the sight. The man lifted his face, mouth dripping with the woman’s juices to grin at her. Reyna’s stomach twisted, and she whirled away, running from the scene in embarrassment. 

Inside her chambers, she collapsed against the door and let the tears flow. Father had never been this cruel to her before, and it frightened her. He became like that when he’d had far too much strong drink, surly and insensitive. But never had he laid a hand on her. That’s enough, she told her tears and dispelled them.

The Princess readied herself for bed, shedding the gown, crafted from golden threads and the feathers of pure, white doves, and draped herself in a sheer robe. 

Before Reyna could retire to sleep, there was a knock at the door. “Who is it”, she asked, thinking it must be one of the servants. There was no reply. With a sigh, she arose from her bed and flung the door open. Before her stood, not a servant, but the son of a great lord who sat on her father’s council. She starred at him, mouth ajar. 

The man smiled and dipped into a showy bow. “I am Kreios, your highness. Thy beauty has been unsung the praise it is due.” 

Reyna’s hand went to the front of her robe, voice lost in surprise. He smiled dashingly and waited. She cleared her throat. “What is that you want?” 

“Thy company, only, my lady.” He bowed again, “Thy father sent me. He wishes us to become better acquainted, so that we may see if the gods have ordained our spirits to match.” 

She starred at him, dread pooling at the base of her spine. “I-I have already retired. I would rather not return to the party.”

Kreios smiled again, and there was something sickly in it. “That’s why the Emperor has sent me here. We can converse in thy chambers.”

Reyna’s breaths increased. She began to shake her head and inch the door closed, but he pressed his large body into the space, moving until he was very close to her face. She could smell the thickness of wine in the breaths that fell into her face. “You know why thy father sent me here. You know this is going to happen.” 

With a gasp she took several steps back from him, fear writhing in her chest and her fingers shaking. Her mind raced. This could not be happening. Father would never give her away in this manner. He had always said, no one would want her as a wife if she wasn’t a virgin. How could he do this?

Kreios entered the dark room and turned to carefully close the door behind him. When he turned back around, there was hunger in his eyes. Before she knew what was happening, he was upon her, lips on her neck and hands at her waist, crushing her to his body. Frozen in horror, Reyna stood stiffly starring at the wall behind him, clenching her fists in the fabric of her robe. 

But soon he had wrenched it away from her body and cast it to the ground. His mouth found its way to her breasts as he palmed them excitedly. Reyna felt sick. All the time, her mind screamed; no, no, stop. But with little resistance, he pushed her to the bed and shoved her down upon it. She lay motionless on her back as he removed his tunic and took his cock in hand, stroking it a few times to ready himself. Then he pried her legs apart and thrust a finger between them. 

Reyna’s eyes snapped shut and a grimace shattered her features as the invasive fingers prodded her most sensitive parts. 

It hurt when he thrust inside her. It stretched and burned and ached. But Reyna bore it, lying stiff at a tree trunk, eyes locked on the ceiling and fingernails biting into the flesh of her palms. She let him have his way with her until he roughly flipped her over onto her stomach and drove into her from behind. He finished a moment later, pulling out to spend across her bare thighs. Reyna did not move. 

After he’d gather his clothes and smoothed his hair, Kreios gazed down his nose at her. “Look at me”, he snapped. 

When she didn’t, he yanked her up by the arm. She finally looked at him with hatred behind her watering eyes and watched his lip curl nastily. “You mock me. Who taught thee to lie there like a fish while a man makes love to you? You really are as dull and witless as they all say.” He released her and she sunk back to the bed. 

The man shook his head and sneered at her. “You are a terrible lover. Not even the peasants who live along the roadside would pay to bed you.” Then he raised his hand and struck her across the face. Reyna dropped into the bedclothes, the smack still stinging on her cheek, tears leaking from her eyes, driven wide by shock. She did not hear him leave. 

For hours, it seemed, she lay there while the semen dripped down her calves and onto the marble floor. Each drip marked a second until they bled together in her mind and she lost all sense of time. She may as well have been lying there since the day the earth goddess Gaia gave birth to the Titians, the first beings to be born.

As dawn neared, the realization of what had happened returned to her; and with it, came fury. She found her thickest robe and gathered herself inside it. On silent toes she crept from her chambers, and when she found the moonlight; she ran. 

The princess raced through the open hallway weaving through the shadows of pillars and over the streams that carried water to and from the palace pools. She ran until her lungs ached and her throat stung, until she could go no longer, and then she ran even more. 

When she arrived at her dais, she fell to the ground in the shadow of the statue and flung her arms around the stone man’s legs. With great heaving breaths she sobbed into curve of his stone skin, clutching him with all the strength left inside her. She wept until the marble of his feet turned grey with her tears, and yet the great basin of sadness inside could not be emptied.

“How could he command this?” She gasped. “How could my father do a thing to me? I never knew men could turn to monsters without anyone seeing, but I do not remember the day my father changed.” 

Great sobs racked her body. “The gods have truly forsaken me! Artemis, protector of maidens, why have you allowed me to be stolen from your service?! Mother Hera, why have you not saved me for marriage?” 

When there are no more tears left, Princess Reyna rose from the dust, clutching the statue’s arm for balance. Her chest ached, her eyes are bone dry, and there is a throbbing pain between her legs and up inside of her, like a that invasive length was still stuffed up into her womanhood. The thought made her cringe and her stomach roll. 

Tired as death, the princess wrapped her arms around the stone torso, releasing her weight for him to bare. Tired as she was, she couldn’t bring herself to return to her room, the place where so much of her had been torn away so violently. Instead, she buried her face in the crook of his shoulder and imagined warm, safe flesh protecting her from the world. 

Drip. 

A small droplet of water landed on her exposed shoulder. And then another. Lifting her chin slightly, Reyna casted her eyes up to the heavens, only to find them clear and void of clouds. She relaxed again, but a moment later, another fell into her skin. Curious, she glanced over at her right shoulder and then up at the downcast face of the stone man hovering just above it. To her amazement, his cheeks were stained with liquid. 

The princess could not believe her eyes. 

Cautiously, she lifted a finger to his face and rubbed it along his undereye. The tip came away damp. With light laughs of surprise, she cupped both palms around his face and ran her thumbs across his cheeks, gathering their wetness. When she lifted a finger to her lips, it tasted of salt. 

These were tears, taste to match that of her own. And she stared up into the face that was weeping, weeping for her. She choked out a laugh of delight. Clinging to his neck, Reyna pressed her forehead to the side of his face and let her bittersweet tears mingle with his. 

“I have always believed you were there. And you are. You are!” 

…

The morning came, as did the wrath of her father. Reyna was awakened by the slam of the doors to her chambers being thrown open by powerful arms. There stood her father, panting and growling, sheen of sweat sparkling on his forehead as he hulked in the doorway. She arose from her pillow and the sight of him made the princess’s blood go cold. He disgusted her. She never wanted to look upon his face again as long as she lived. 

Reyna glared up at him, her hands fisting in her sheets, lip curling in disgust. 

“You!” The Emperor spat. His plump face was bright red and a vein pulsed at his scarlet temple, a visible sign of the aching probably swirling deep inside. It was the last evidence of the night of drink and gaiety. He swayed on his feet, sense of balance not yet regained. “Thou little, Bitch!” He pointed a shaking finger towards her face. 

The princess gathered her breath, preparing to talk back, to cast all the curses of the gods down upon him. But before she had the chance, the man stalked across the room. A hand shot out towards her and she yanked her arm away from it’s grasp, crying out. But that was not the target. The Emperor snatched up a handful of her hair and yanked. 

Reyna tumbled off the side of her bed, kicking and clawing at the hand fisted deep in his curls as he drug her from the room. The stone floor stripped layers of skin from her knees and elbows. Great drops of blood ran down her forearms. She cried and pleaded with him, but her Father did not stop. Instead, he dragged her through the abandoned halls of the palace and up the stairs to the rooftop pavilion. 

When they had reached the top, he threw her against the ornately carved railing. There was a sickening thud as her head hit the hard surface. A hand fell in-between two of the supports and she shuddered in terror, thinking, for a moment she would slip through and fall. Gasping, she clutched the railing and turned on her knees to look at the Emperor, who stood in the alcove, eyes on the horizon. He didn’t cast her so much as a glance. 

A great horror began to build within her. He was going to kill her. He was going to cast her over the side. 

When she was young, her father had carried her up here to look out upon the kingdom. This was the highest place in the whole city, and he’d had it specially made so that he could sit and watch the sun rise over a grateful kingdom. Tightly, he’d gripped her small fist in his own and warn her not to go near the edge, for fear she might fall. “A fall from this height”, he assured her, “would result in death.” 

Now, she could not compare the man standing above her, with the one who had held her back. What had become of that man? When had he died, and how did she not noticed until now? 

“Father”, she whimpered, casting her eyes upon his impassive face. She had to hope there was something left of her Father left inside him, so she tried again. “Father?” No response. “Please father”, she sobbed.

With tears and mucus streaming down her face, she fell prostrate at his feet, gripping the hem of his robes in her fists. “I’m sorry, Father. Please grant me your forgiveness.” 

With one swift movement, he bent, returuing his grip to her scalp and hauling her to the edge. Reyna screamed and braced her arms and legs against the railing, trying to hold back, but her forced her forward. Pressing the side of her face into the top of the rail with one hand, he used other to point a the city below. “Look”, he commanded and shook her head violently. She forced her eyes to stay open and focused them on the landscape. 

“Look upon this, child.” His voice was murderous and dark. “Look upon this sight and never forget this moment. This, all we can see, is my kingdom. It is mine and it eats from my hand alone. If I command it to starve, it shall starve.” 

“Understand this. I will not give it up. Only my blood shall rule here. You are my only child. Believe that, if there were another, I would cast you from this place before you could draw another breath. Alas, the gods have cursed me such offspring as you and you only, therefore, you shall be Empress after me.”

“You have displeased me more this time, than ever before. In heat of the night, a thought came to me, one sent from the gods. If a suitor was spared from conversation with you, and was aloud to bed you, surely, he would find you good and take thee as a wife. My plan appeared foolproof. But I underestimated how great of a fool thou art.” The Emperor shook his head. 

“I found the one man who still retained interest, and sent him to you chambers, full of drink and aroused by dancing with maidens. You had only to lie with him, to be a good lover. You had but one task.” 

“Imagine my disappointment when he came unto me and reported the experience as like one of lying with a corpse.” 

A whimpering sob escaped Reyna’s lips and he finally cast his eye upon her. But a moment later, he turned away in disgust, releasing her to fall to the ground. “I know you knew how to be a good lover. I not insist upon lessons from the most skilled of scholars.”

“You have embarrassed me. You have embarrassed yourself. It will be a miracle from the gods if you marry at all. Mark me, within a day, the entire city will know of thy incompetence. You wasted thy maidenhood. You waisted the one thing we had left to bargain. We have nothing now.” 

Her Father turned his back on her and moved to stand at the top of the descending staircase. “You will double your efforts, let flesh be torn from your body or choke upon a thousand cocks; but you will find a husband, or I swear upon the River Styx, death will be the least of thy torments.” 

…

She arose when the sun was in the middle of its arc. Days past without number. The servants rubbed color into her cheeks and replaced all her white garments with seducing colors and heavy gemstones. The princess lost herself in the dark crevasses of the palace and gardens. At meal time, she hardly touched her food, only drinking the wine. In the evenings, she padded down to the kitchens and made companions of many bottles of her favorite wines and meads. Her skin turned ghostly pale and pinched up against her ribs and hipbones. The light had gone from her eyes. 

Not once did she visit her stone prince. Not even he should see her like this. 

Every so often, a suitor arrived in the room set for him. They feasted together and, all the while, she pined on a seductive smile and laughed at his tactless words. It was clear he was only there for one purpose. Afterward, he pushed her down upon the bed that had been placed there for them; and she did not resist him. There was no use pretending she had anything else to offer. Everyone knew she was no longer a virgin. 

At first, she only pretended to enjoy the sex, keeping herself numb and cold inside. But soon, she forgot to care and used them like they were using her. She made her mind numb and took the release, writhing and screaming, the orgasms granting a momentary high. Most left without a word. None ever returned.

Despite her efforts, it became clear, it was simply too late. Reyna never spoke to her father, but each time she met his eyes, they were darker than the last. He knew it too. It was too late to fix what she had done. 

…

When her suitor arrived in the room, she immediately shoved him to the ground and climbed atop him. She yanked his tunic up and shifted her dress to give her access to take his shaft deep inside her. She rode him hard, fingernails drawing blood from his flesh. As she came, she wrapped her hand around his neck, and squeezed. Then, before he could finish, she climbed off him, rearranging her skirts and plucking a bottle from the dining table. The contence burned, but she only opened her jaw wider and tipped the bottle upside down, letting all the liquid drain into her stomach.

Having accomplished her task, the princess strode from the room and to her chambers. 

With a careful hand, she removed the gown from her body, it was all peacock feathers, and replaced it with a sheer, pale pink wrap. She left her sandals in the middle of the floor. She didn’t need them where she was going.

Her footfalls were heavy and purposeful. Not one sound did she make. Feet passed through both moonlight and shadow the same. They stopped only when she had reached the empty dais. 

The eyes of the stone man had never look more saddened. This time she felt the weight of his pain deep in her gut, settling there beside her own. She drew near to place her head upon the wide expanse of chest. Moments slipped by, as the peace of the night drew around them like a heavy curtain. 

“You have been my solitary companion all these years.” She lifted her gaze to find his blank eyes. “I thank you, my dear friend. I only wish I could have eased your own pain the way you did mine.” She rose up onto the tips of her toes and grasped his large beautiful face between her palms, drinking in his visage. 

“I’m so sorry life was not kind to you. You deserved better. And swallowing back a sob, Reyna pressed her rosy lips to his stone ones. This kiss, though with piece of marble, held more passion than every touch given to every other man who came before. 

The she pulled away from her prince. “You were right to leave this cruel world behind.” 

And then, brushing a single tear from her cheek, the princess turned away from him and towards the smooth surface of the pool. 

The water was refreshingly cool against her toes as she dipped in one foot and then another. Each step carried her deeper into its waiting arms. Rose fabric fanned out on the surface and a slight breeze bushed hair along her collarbone and shoulder. Eyes fluttered closed. 

Poseidon, see me safely to the distant shore. Hades, grant me your kiss. 

Thighs, then waist, then bust sank below the surface. Then she bent her knees and surrendered herself to the water. 

But- something held her back. She strained, but something solid pushed against the muscles of her abdomen. When she opened her eyes and looked down, she found a white stone arm bent around her waist. No. Let me free. She shoved against it, wriggled and shifted, but it was unyielding. 

Gasping, the princess turned inside the bent arm to find the statue standing behind her. His face held the same expression and his sword arm still hung limply at his side, but he most certainly had moved. She gaped, unable to believe her own eyes. 

She pressed a palm to his chest, only to find it firm as ever. Her fingers found his chin. Eyes flitted between his, searching for a sign. Hope sparked in her chest.   
Hesitantly, her lips moved to his. Urgently, she kissed him. Tears ran from her eyes and brow furrowed. And she clutched him in her arms and kissed him strong and deep. 

Were his lips growing plush beneath her own? She dared not pause to check. She couldn’t tell if it was working or not, but still she moved her mouth on his. She kissed and kissed and kissed him, until the moment she felt his mouth moving against hers and she tasted his breath on her tong. 

When she opened her eyes, they were met with a pair of dark, shining eyes, more beautiful than she could have imagined and deep brown as the richest cholate; so deep they might have watched the first sun rise. Flushed, plush lips smiled at her. And she recaptured them, tasting and parting them. Large warm palms wrapped her waist and she locked her arms around his neck, marveling at she silky softness of his hair. Her eyes came open to watch as she ran her fingers through the obsidian curls. 

When she met his eyes again, they were devouring her, skipping across her features under long thick lashes. He was breathtaking. And though she’d never heard it before, when he spoke, his voice was as familiar to her as her own heartbeat. 

“Reyna”. Her ran his thumbs under her eyes. “Reyna”, he said it over and over again, tasting her name, discovering it, running it over and over his tong. “Reyna.” His voice was impossibly deep and heartbreakingly gentle. 

“Yes”, whispered the princess, half laugh and half sob. “Yes, my love. I am here. I have you. For always.” 

A small sob escaped his grinning lips. “Yes. You have me. And I have you. And now that I do, I shall never let go.” Her lips found his once again. His were still wet from her mouth and their mingled tears. Nothing had ever been sweeter. Their mouths fit perfectly together, found the perfect rhythm, steady and strong. It was as though, when the gods had carved them from dust, they had made them to match. 

Reyna groaned when he took her bottom lip between his teeth and sucked into his warmth. 

The man, her prince, gathered her up into his arms and carried her out of the pool. He cradled her gently to his chest, still as solid as when he was a statue. He sat down upon the stone bench. Reyna stayed in his lap, desperate not to break their contact. 

“You are the most beautiful. I always knew that you were, but now I can see it so clearly.”

Reyna smiled, but then her brow creased. “You were awake in there? All of those years?”

“No”, he said his eyes falling to some distant spot in his memory. “I was asleep, a dreamless, painless, sleep; save when you came to me. In the moments you were there, I came half awake. I was a man again.” He kissed her temple. “You made me want to live again. And then you gave it back to me.” 

“That night at full moon, you really did cry?” 

Very slowly he dipped his head to look at her. There was something, a spark behind his eyes. “Yes.” His voice had dropped an octave. His eye twitched. “Standing there, being stuck, unable to do anything, was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. All I wanted to do was gather you into my arms and protect you from everything, but I could not. I wanted nothing more than to rise with my sword and deliver my wroth to those who had caused you harm. They would have been greeting Hades before they knew I was upon them.”

He swallowed thickly. “I’m so very sorry.”

Reyna caressed his jaw with her knuckles. “No. You could not have done anything. It is alright-.” She paused mid-sentence and chuckled to herself, then meets his questioning gaze. “I know with most certainty that I love you with all of my soul, but yet, I still do not know your name.” 

The prince’s lips twitched into a smile. “I am was called Kilithios.” He grinned and dipped his long, pointed nose into the crook of her neck and pressed kisses, full of tong and teeth, to the column of her throat. She smiled broadly and then gasped under his cleaver lips.

He met her eyes. “And I also, love only thee.” 

Reyna laced her fingers in the thick curls at the base of his neck. “What is the meaning?” 

“As I remember it: alone, single, solo, without a people.” 

“Well, Kilithios”, Reyna kissed his eyelids. “Thou art no longer alone.” 

“And you neither, my love.”

Kilithios’s eyes turned serious. “Reyna.” He lifted her from his lap and set her on the bench. Then he kneeled before her, bare skin glinting in first lights of dawn, enveloping her hands in his large ones. 

“Reyna, there is still pain in thy heart. The people who hurt you are still living, and they deserve a fate worse than death. My love, my light; say the word and I shall slay them where they stand. I shall brave an army of a thousand mortals to on thy behalf. Give me a command and I shall carry it out.” 

Her somber eyes lifted his to graze the pink and gold horizon. Automatically, her hand went to her wrist, feeling the ghost of the fingers that gripped too hard. When she finally found his gaze again, there is a new light in her eyes. 

“No.” She continued upon seeing his frown, “You are right. They deserve to die. But not by thy hand.”


	2. The Empress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Golden helm glinting in the sunlight, she turned her head to gaze out the doorway, toward the sky.   
> Artemis, you were my patron. Athena, you granted me wisdom. Now, I pray Ares shall guide my sword.

The sun of late morning carried the courtiers of the palace up from the depths of sleep into a new day of pleasures. The Emperor’s house began to stir. Limbs were unentwined from bed clothes and other limbs. Silver silk. Lilac robes. Togas thick and creamy. The noble people rubbed the sleep from their eyes and donned their finery. Their tick thighs and even thicker hips paced together towards the dinning hall to indulge in yet another feast.

The Emperor sat at the head of the table, blackness showing in his eyes. Beside him, always silent, always beautiful; his wife sat, eyes blank and stupid.   
The party enjoyed their meal and conversation. All was serene and proceeded as any other morning had. The gods looked down…and smiled. 

At the west entrance to the palace, a single guard stood at his post, leaning against a pillar. No one ever used this entrance. The soldier knew this. And yet, all of a sudden, the two solid wooden doors at the end of the entrance opened with a resounding bang. The guard’s head shot up and his jaw fell open. 

Slicing through the blinding light bursting through the wide opening, came two figures with swords in their hands and fire in their eyes. The guard fell before his sword left his sheath; first loosing his arms and then his life. 

Reyna cast Kilithios a look and he nodded in assent. Golden helm glinting in the sunlight, she turned her head to gaze out the doorway, toward the sky. Artemis, you were my patron. Athena, you granted me wisdom. Now, I pray Ares shall guide my sword. 

They surged forward, together, the princess and cursed prince. A group of seven soldiers was waiting around the next corner. The first one cried out when Kilithios passed a sword through his chest, whipping around slice off the head of his comrade. Reyna ducked as another man dove at her. She spun around just a moment quicker than him and impaled her blade in his side. Two others died at her hand, while Kilithios killed the other two in one deadly stroke. 

The pair were met with more adversaries, who had heard the commotion and arrived with steal flashing. They were no match for vengeance and her lover. They moved as one, twisting and spinning in a blood-soaked dance. Hearts and minds in synch as men fell on their right and their left. And when they had finished with one group, they found another. 

The halls rang with the sound of men dying. Enemy by enemy they moved through the palace, ending all those who stood against them, and sparing those who yielded. “Swear allegiance to me, and you shall keep your lives”, Reyna told a pair of servants who had taken up weapons to defend themselves. They hesitated only a moment before falling on their faces before her. 

They moved like angels of death, like the Furies of Hades. The white of their robes was licked up by crimson. They carried the strength of gods in their veins and nothing stood in their path. 

Very near to the center of the palace, they came upon a group larger than any yet faced. The couple stood back to back, and when the first wave hit, they defended as one being with four arms and two swords. Reyna dove around to stab a man whos sword was on a path to Kilithios’s gut, and then grasped his hip and leaned on his body as he thrust backward, his force and hers cutting down three of her assailants. 

When Kilithios had killed the last of the men he waded through the carnage to press a firm kiss to her gasping mouth. They were both wounded and could feel their strength ebbing, but they were not yet finished.

There was one lone guard posted outside the double, Cyprus doors of the throne room. One guard. The arrogance. The imbecility.

She needed not even to speak, for when the Princess and the man born from stone came around the corner, dressed in blood and radiating power, his sword fell from his fist and he fled for his life. 

“Shall we?” Kilithios asked. In answer, she placed both palms to the doors and flung them wide. 

The room was deathly silent. Not a muscle twitched. Not a breath escaped. Every eye was fixed upon the Princess as she lifted her chin and surveyed the room; the nobles, the servants, the royal family, and her Father. The hand that clasped her sword raised. She looked down its length, meeting every eye one by one. “Hear me!” Her voice was thunder. “Bow before me, your Empress, and I shall spare you from the torments of Hades.” 

The Emperor regarded her coldly. Then he sneered. “Guards”, he snapped his fingers. “Kill the man, but bring the girl and lay her head beneath my heal.” 

Soldiers surged forward from both sides of the room. Kilithios killed them all before they could reach her. One escaped his grasp and fell in her path. The point of her sword pierced his throat and, never moving her eyes from her father’s, she leaned on the hilt while he died. The spluttering a wet gasping echoed in the chamber. 

“I give you one last chance”, she addressed the crowd. “Bow before me.” 

As one, the noblemen rose from their seats and draw their swords. For one moment there was a peace before the storm. Then hell broke forth and the room was cast into chaos. Swords clashed, metal on metal. The women scattered to the corners of the room, wailing and slipping on blood. The sick sound of fists on flesh mingled with their screams as Reyna and her prince were forced to use not only their swords to fight, but their fists as well. 

Steal bit into Reyna’s undefended thigh. The edge of a blade ripped a tear in the skin of her back. 

The noble men were smart and well trained, but they had grown thick and sluggish in the many years of peace, and they payed dearly for that indulgence. 

At last, only one man remained. Reyna thrust at him, missing his body, but swiping along the fingers of his sword hand. The sword and his fingers fell to the ground, but not giving up, he ducked behind her and flung the spurting stump across her chest, holding her sword arm away from her body. The other hand went to her neck and begun to squeeze. Her other arm clawed at the vice cutting off her air, while her sword swung wildly in the air. She couldn’t get purchase. She couldn’t breathe. 

Suddenly a realization came to her, and she released the sword hilt. It began to fall towards the earth, but a moment before it was out of reach, her other hand snaked out to grasp it in her fist. A slash backward cut off his legs at the knees and the same strike bounced back to lop off his head. 

Reyna stumbled forward, gasping. Her body folded over as she attempted to regain the ability to breathe. 

Behind there was a grunt of pain. She whirled, and to her dismay, several feet away Kilithios grappled with his final foe. The man was behind him, his sword across Ben’s chest, only inches from his neck. The man gripped both ends of the sword and pulled with all his weight. Ben had both palms pressed to the point of the blade, the only thing between him and death. Blood, both men’s mixing together, ran off the tip of the sword in a steady stream. Ben grunted in effort. His arms shook under the pressure. Another inch and he would be dead.

Reyna’s heart froze. 

In the moments it would have taken her to cross the distance, it would be too late, so as she cried the name of her beloved, she threw her sword with all her might. It sailed through the air, barely missing Ben’s face, and impaled the man’s head, lodging half way through. He dropped like a rock and his sword left Ben’s throat, clanging loudly on the stone floor. 

Ben slumped forward and Reyna dove forward to catch him. The entire right side of his face was covered in blood from a thin slice down his cheek. “Kilithios”, she gasped realizing is was her blade that had caused this wound; the point had skimmed his face as it passed into his attacker’s head. “Are you- dear gods… I’m so sorry.” 

“No.” He steadied himself against her. “I am alright. Let us finish this.” 

Two sets of footprints of blood marked a trail across the pristine marble of the throne room, toward the two white thrones at the end of the chamber. Reyna’s clothes had long since been sliced away, but she was garbed in a robe of blood and she wore it with pride. 

The Emperor watched them come. His eyes were steel. His robes clean. His fists clenched on the arms of his throne, and his heart quaked with pure, unadulterated fear. Nemesis, revenge herself, had come for him at last. 

“Father.”

He did not meet her eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to. 

“Look upon my face, Father, for it is the last you shall see.”

Finally, the old man let his eyes roll up to meet her as she stood over him. They were pure hatred. Anger twisted his features and twitched at his thin lips. “You would not dare.” He spat and then turned his eyes away in disgust, as if he’d been beholding a hideous monster rather than his only child. 

Reyna extended her sword and used the flat of the point to nudge his chin up, until he was forced to look at her. “You underestimated me, and my anger. That will be thy downfall.”

“I should have killed you on the day you came in the world of men, the day the gods cursed me with thy presence.”

“Indeed. Pity you had not yet developed a stomach for violence. But nothing could have prevented this moment from arriving.” She bent in closer until they were eye to eye. And when she spoke, her voice was soft and measured. 

“Yield to me thy throne, and I shall consider sparing your life.” 

A wild, disbelieving cackle burst from his lips. The wide, red maw ripped his face in two and spittle sprayed from it. “I, give my throne, my kingdom to the likes of you? Spare my life?” He guffawed. “It is thee who will beg for thy life when this day is done, and I kill you with the cruelest stroke. Thou art but a child. Thou are but an imbecile and a whore. You will never sit upon this throne.”

“Yield to me thy throne, and I shall consider sparing your life.” 

Shrinking away from the point of her sword as it hovered ever closer to his adam’s apple, the man scoffed. “Thou art bluffing. Kill me? You have neither the stomach nor the courage. The people will never accept you when they learn what you have done. Murdered thy father in cold blood! They will burn thee alive. You need me. If you had already decided in thy heart to kill me, you would have done it long ago.”

Reyna came close to him, only a breath away, so that he could see deep into her eyes. And what he saw, revealed was truly in her heart. What he saw there, made his own heart quake with terror. The confidence and humor drained from his face until it was ashen and sickly as a corpse. Her voice was as soft as a breath.

“Yield to me my throne.” 

“Hear me. I shall give you everything you could want; gold, men, gowns weaved by goddesses. I shall never raise my hand to you again. You will not be made to marry. I will let you-.”

The Emperor’s final sentence ended with a scream as his daughter stabbed him strait through the heart, and t-w-i-s-ted. 

Then the Empress rent in the body in half and kicked it to the stones beneath her feet. Her eyes swiveled to where, behind the throne, her mother knelt, sniveling and hiding her face from the sight. The old woman finally looked up and howled when saw the look in the Empress’s eyes. “Have you any objections?” In response, the women crawled forth and groveled at her daughter’s feet, great strands of mucus dangling from her nose as she pressed it to the earth. 

“Remove her.”

“Yes, Empress.” One of the servants, who had come rushing forth at her command, replied. The woman dissolved into a sobbing heap before being born away by all four limbs, followed by the rest of the wailing noble women. 

Then the Empress sat upon her throne, and all her subjects gathered before her. 

“My Queen”, Kilithios said, falling to one knee before her throne. “I pledge to thee my sword and my heart. They are thine to command until heaven and earth pass away.” 

Reyna pressed a gentle hand to the top of his bent head. “I accept thy pledge.”

“Empress”, a voice rose from the crowd. “I also pledge my sword to thy service.”

“And I, your majesty.” Said another.

“And I do also.”

The gods looked down on the new Empress, and smiled. 

When the throne room had emptied, and it was just the two, Reyna rose and helped Kilithios from his knee. She pressed a gentle hand to his cheek and then led him from the room and down the passage that led to the Emperor’s chambers. 

Great bronze braziers lined the walls, lighting the dim enclosed room. Steam rose in from the heated waters of the deep, square pool in the ground, as they entered from behind a heavy purple curtain. Kilithios looked around at the good leafed pillars and ceiling painted with elaborate tales of gods and monsters. “An amazement. I am in awe.”

Reyna glanced up as she guided him to the side of the water. “The Emperor’s private bath. My mother was the only woman in the palace not permitted entrance.” 

He chuckled. “Ah, I see.” 

“Yes. At least my father knew the importance of bathing, I grant him that.”

As they sat down at the edge of the pool and dipped their feet in, Ben sighed in appreciation. “Oh, this feels wonderful. I warn you, you may never be able to get me to leave this bath ever again, once I am inside.”

“I do not mind. I may, in fact, join you.” She looked over at him and suddenly frowned. “Oh, Kilithios. Thy face.” She reached up and pressed the lightest touch just below the thin wound down the side of his face. “It looks dreadful. Is it terribly painful?” 

“No. Not terribly.” He ran a finger down the raised edge of the cut. “Not so painful, I cannot feel the pain from all the other injuries.” When his hand met her fingers, he cupped his large palm over hers and smiled reassuringly. “I will be alright. Though I may have a rather large scar. I hope you will not take offence.” 

“On the contrary”, she grinned wickedly. “I would not accept you without one.” 

“Ah, now I see it was thy plan all along.” Ben laid his brow against hers and playfully nudged her shoulder, eyes slipping to her lips. 

Reyna leaned in close, her lips hovering tantalizingly above his mouth. She chuckled into his parted lips and whispered, “You see strait through my every disguise.” Then he surged forward to capture her kiss, sucking her top lip into her mouth for a taste. 

Their kisses were playful, giving in just before darting out of reach, nipping and grinning; but they soon turned hungry and sensual. Ben’s hands ghosted down and all across her body. Reyna shivered at the tiniest brush of knuckles on her nipple as they explored. 

“Ouch.” Reyna grimaced and shrunk away from the place where he’d just settled a wide palm. 

He quickly removed his hand and leaned down to inspect the long gash on the side of her thigh. “You are injured. I did not even notice with all this filth.” His eyes raked down her naked body, searching for more wounds, and Reyna suddenly felt heat bloom under her skin. “Here, let me help.”

He took her hands and helped as she slipped down until she was fully submerged. Reyna began to wash the layers of blood from her skin, but when Kilithios climbed out of the water to retrieve the soap, her eyes followed him. She couldn’t help but stare in rapture at the beauty of his form. She had seen him naked a thousand times as a statue, but that had never felt real. There was something about the constrict roll of the muscles in his thighs and ass and the dark trail of hair that guided, enticed, her eyes down his abdomen to what lay between his legs; that was very real indeed. 

Reyna’s cheeks were a deep crimson when he rejoined her in the bath. Kilithios didn’t notice but took to the task at hand efficiently rubbing away the blood and lathering her body in suds. 

When the soap revealed the large slice she’d received along the arch of her back, Kilithios grimaced. He washed it as gently as possible with the most careful of fingers. When he had finished, he pressed a warm kiss to the raw skin beside the wound and then kissed his way up and along her shoulder to the side of her neck and under her ear. He was warm and soft, and she leaned into his touch, her eyes drifting closed in content. 

Then Reyna washed his body, paying careful attention to the many abrasions across his skin and trying to pay less attention to other parts of his body. When they had both settled on the ledge, he took a strand of hair between his fingers. “There is gore still in thy hair. May I?” Reyna nodded, so he parted his knees and guided her to sit between them. He was barely touching her, but she was acutely aware of the way it felt when the curve of her ass grazed the skin of his thigh. 

When she was settled before him, he began scooping up water and working it through the matted mess with his fingers. They sat in silence a while before Ben said, “My Mother, and my Grandmother, both had hair similar to yours. Brown, and thick. When I was very young, my Mother spent much of her time attending to matters of state, so my Grandmother looked after me. I would brush her hair for hours and bind it up into all manner of complex knots and weaves, while she told me stories. She taught me of the gods and Titians, and wars between them. She was a very wise woman, and very kind…” His fingers stilled in Reyna’s hair and she turned slightly to see him lost in thought. He noticed her look and shook himself, returning to his task.

“She was my favorite person, aside from my Mother, who never quite had enough time to fill the time I wished for. My relationship with my Father was strained, partially because we spent little time together. He was on the battlefield, fighting in the war along side my Grandfather and Uncle, who were powerful generals. It was the last blow to our family when Grandfather betrayed us and joined the other side. He was seduced by their leader, who had convinced him it his side was the morally right.”

“The war was long and bloody, and we were on losing end.” 

“One night, only a year after I left my mother to rule alone and joined the battle, I snuck into the temple of the god of wrath and stole the golden brazier that held a flame infused with the power of a god. I was foolish and too confident in my own strength. I could not know what I was doing.”

“I was chased by monsters who had been set to guard the temple, and barely made it to the battlefield; but I did, and gave the flame to my Uncle. He used its power to win the war and was reconciled with his Father just before his death. We all returned home in elation and celebration, but it was not to last.”

“What I did not know, is that the god of wrath had been the fighting with our enemies, for a war had been manipulated by the gods who were in the midst of a war of their own. He was greatly displeased at what I had done. The earth shook with his anger. And in revenge, he rained down a curse upon me that took control of my mind and turned me into a monster.”

As the story progressed, Ben’s tone had grown softer, but now it was a low rumble at her back. His pain and regret was palpable. She had heard his story, the myth passed down through time as a cautionary tale, a thousand times, but now it was real. And the shock of what a terrible thing it was, hit her like a fist to the gut. 

“I knew then, as I know now, it was not my fault and I had not actually done those unspeakable things. But when I awoke from that trance and saw what my hands had done of their own accord, I could not contain it. Though I was not conscious as it happened, the memory of it would always live inside of me, and I could not bear it.”  
“So, I surrendered myself to death, but the gods changed my form and caused me to sleep for three hundred inside the stone prison built of my own flesh. Not once did I awake. Until the day you arrived, just a young maiden, with big brown eyes.” 

Reyna turn sideways in his lap, draping her legs over one knee and placing a palm on his wide chest, and gazed into his deep soulful eyes. She could feel a lump forming in her throat and tears filling her eyes. A smile played at Ben’s lips as he continued. “You looked up and me, and you weren’t afraid. You looked at me as if you knew me. As if you could see me curled up asleep deep inside that stone; and you knew me.” 

Kilithios tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It was a torment worse than the those in the underworld to see the way you suffered and were caused pain with no one to care for you. But seeing your pain made me forget my own. I recognized the same pain inside of you. And, for the first time in nearly three hundred years, I wanted to live again. And it was because of you, I finally did.” There were great tears shining in his eyes, and when she kissed him, they spilled over and join her own as they mingled between their desperate tongs. 

His hands once again traced the lines of her body, where once soft and hesitant, now sure and strong. He wrapped his hands around both breasts, the palms so large, they were nearly enveloped in his firm heat. She had never expected that when he squeezed them hard and pinched her nipples, that it would feel this good, that it would steal her breath. She didn’t expect the round, wet curl of his lips over the point of her breast would ignite a great aching need between her legs, such as she’d never felt.   
Reyna gripped handfuls of his black curls, cradling his head to her chest as he ravaged her small breasts with his large mouth and tong.

Her lips kissed their way up and down the bump of vertebra down the back of his neck. When her mouth found his ear, he groaned and nipped at the underside of a breast. Reyna grinned and kept her lips on the firm cartilage. His breaths grew ragged, and when she experimentally nibbled at the very tip of the rim, hands suddenly griped her waist and swiveled her between his legs, so that her back was to his chest. 

Kilithios pulled her hips firmly into his, his firm erection pressed to the soft flesh of her ass and growled into her ear in a way that made her hips rock of their own accord. With one hand, he held her hips still as the other crawled between her trembling thighs, to dip a single finger between her folds and into her heat. 

They both gasped. She was already dripping with slick. Reyna twisted her head around to lock her teeth on his bottom lip and pull him closer for a kiss that was all tongs. He ground against her from behind, the tip of his cock poking into her lower back and between the cheeks of her ass. 

With the palm wrapped around the outside of her sex and the finger working her insides, he lifted her up and flattened his cock under her and pulled her down to straddled it, the length buried under the slick slit. 

She dug her nails into his thighs as she began to slide her throbbing cunt along the shaft, twitching each time the firm round head ground against her clit. Neither would last long like this. Both needed more, so much more; to go all the way. Reyna could tell by the way his breaths hitched in her ear and the way her moaned into the skin of her shoulder, that he was ready. 

Reyna forced herself to stop grinding and turn her upper body to look him fully in the face. His cock twitched beneath her, but he resisted the desire to rock against her, starring into her eyes with concern, a question unspoken on his lips. His wide, needy pupils searched her eyes for the answer. 

“Kilithios”, her voice was softer than a whisper. Her eyes flickered away from his. “I am no longer a virgin.” 

“I understand.” 

She met his gaze again. “That is does not bother you?” 

Kilithios moved in closer and he nudged her nose with his pointed one. “No. Of course not. I am not a virgin either. Is that a problem to you?” 

She didn’t even need to consider before answering. “No. It does not matter to me… I only worried you might not-.” She bit her lip. 

“I want you”, He insisted, cupping her cheek. “Knowing that you were with other men does not change that. I would want you if you had been one thousand other men. I do not care about any of them; just you.” 

Reyna met his heavy-lidded eyes again and said, “I want you too, I-”, her breath hitched, “I need you.” 

Then she relaxed against his body as he kissed her hard on the mouth and pulled her hips back against himself. The tip of his cock found her clit and ground hard and quickly against it. She gasped. Her head fell back and sucked a bruise just under his chin. Then he lifted her up and reach below to line himself up with her entrance. The tip bumped maddeningly, but though his grip never lessened on her hips, he waited for her to grant it entrance. 

“Are you sure it does not worry you?” She whispered, still hesitating as a tiny prick of worry worked the base of her skull. 

“I swear it, my love. I could not want thee more than I do in this moment, not just thy body, but thy heart and mind, and soul. And when you give yourself to me, I shall take you so hard and fill you so completely that you forget another man ever existed, and I you will be a virgin again and I will take thy maidenhood and then take it again-.” 

Kilithios’s sentence ended with a broken moan, for she had suddenly sunk down onto his cock, taking the full length fully inside her in one stroke. His was large, but perfectly large, and he made good on his promise; filling her up and plunging inside with long hard strokes, going deep and then deeper still; until her mind was full of only him and she sobbed with the sweetness of it. 

A heat growing in both of them, their pace turned frantic. Reyna was coming down hard to meet his rough strokes, and Kilithios snapping up so fast the water around them turned to waves. “Oh, Kilithios”, the way she cried his name was music to his ears. 

“Yes, Reyna. Thou are prefect for me.” He pounded into her from behind, holding her by her forearms, arms extended behind her and he rose up to meet her as he pulled her down and then pushed up. They were both nearing their release, he could feel her inner walls clenching down deliciously on his rock-hard shaft.

Reyna cried out as Kilithios unexpectedly pulled out and scooped her up in his arms. He carried her out from the pool and laid her down on the heated stones. On her back, knees together and bent, Reyna gazed up at her lover as he knelt before her and nudged her legs to splay wide. Her face heated up at being open that way, and at the way he was starring at her womanhood like it was the most delectable of desserts. 

He crawled forward, his body low to the ground, starring her down all the way. She couldn’t have torn her eyes away if she’d wanted to. The way the muscles of his back and calves rippled, and sweet curvature of his ass were doing things to her.

She expected him to climb atop her so that they could continue their unfinished business; her cunt felt empty and fluttered at the anticipation of being filled, but he took her bent knee in his hands and moved his mouth on it, kissing down the inside of her thigh. 

“What are you doing?” Before Reyna knew what was happening, Kilithios’s plush red lips were hovering right over her core, hot breath fanning the splayed lips. Her hands dropped to her hips, ready to reach out and cover herself. Embarrassment curled her brow. 

He glanced up at her from under dark, thick brows and even thicker lashes, and his smile was purely devious. “I am going to taste you.” He kissed the right of her outer folds. “I am going to drink you up.” Lips pressed to the left fold. And in a breath where the world stood still. He met her eyes and growled, “I am going to devour you.” 

Then he plunged in.

Reyna cried out when his tong met her dripping cunt. She’d had intercourse with many men and had even let a few thrust dispassionately into the hollow of her cheek, but she had never done this. It embraced her almost as much as it was pleasuring her. “Kilithios, you do not have to…” She began to move her hand down to push him away, but then he was suckling at her clit and her whole body arched in pleasure.

“Ooohhhhhhhh”, she groaned, and Kilithios grinned against her. 

When he came up for air, Rey made a face at the slick dripping from his chin, while at the same time feeling a little thrill. “I have never done that before.”

“Neither have I, but I have spent many a night contemplating just how to do it.”

He licked his lips and she made a face. “That must not taste very good. I cannot imagine what it must taste like.”

Kilithios cocked his head and considered. “Ambrosia.” He said simply.

“What?”

“It tastes like Ambrosia.” He licked his lips seductively. “The food of gods.” 

And then he was feasting again. 

When he hips began squirming and her fists found his hair to pull him closer, she gasped. “I am close.” 

“Good I am as well.” He rose up, kneeling between wide legs. He moved up and over her body until his hands were planted beside her head and his great wide chest was pressing her breasts flat under his weight. It was comforting, that press, not so hard that it hurt, but just hard enough to feel their hearts beating between them. 

Kilithios’s cock slid in easily, his arousal mixing with hers and his own saliva. His strokes were slow and impossibly deep, reaching a place inside she didn’t know existed. She wrapped her legs around his hips and placed her palms on his chest, surrendering to him every piece of her. Their sweaty foreheads pressed together as they panted into each other’s open mouths. His pace picked up, though never any less deep and hard, until the smacks of his balls and the skin of their thighs filled the air. 

“I am going to come”, she gasped. 

“Yes.”

“Come with me.”

“I promise.” 

Reyna screamed as she finished. Her vision went white hot for a moment as bliss over took all senses. Her cunt clamped down on him as he came, burring his seed deep inside, and then milked him dry with his last few strokes. 

They collapsed together, limbs intertwined, as they remembered how to think and how to breathe. 

Kilithios carried her back to her chambers. He cradled her with the gentleness fit for a fragile bird and with the awe due a bride on the day of her wedding. 

A gown made from strands of pure gold is what he dressed her in. A robe of dark silk is what he wore as she passed a comb through his hair and smoothed it around his face. Pearls and clear stones woven into the curls wrapped at the back of her head. 

There was a crown of golden laurels lying on a velvet pillow on the table beside her looking glass. With reverence, Kilithios lifted it from its resting place and set it atop her head. Then they both gazed at her reflection in the glass. 

Suddenly, Reyna reached out and took his hands, gripping them hard in both of hers. He knelt beside her chair and gazed up into her anxious face. 

“Don’t go.” She whispered, looking down at their clasped hands and then back to his eyes. “Don’t leave me.”

“I am not.” 

“Don’t leave me, not ever. I need you here beside me. I want to shoulder my responsibilities to my people and be a good ruler, but I’m afraid. I don’t know how to do it. My father never prepared me, and I feel lost. Never could I do this alone. I need thy help, and thy counsel, and thy care; but most of all, I need thy hand in mine for always. So, please, don’t leave me, don’t go.” 

His kisses were feather-light on her knuckles. “I promise.” 

There was a great gathering of people already assembled when the Empress arrived in the throne room once again. She sat down upon her throne and her Emperor sat beside her. When she rose to speak, her people listened. And when she asked for their blessing, they gave it, and bent the knee before her.   
And the gods looked down upon the Empress, and smiled. 

They smiled upon her all the days that she lived in the land of men. And turned away their eyes each night when her stone born Prince made love to her. They showered them with gifts and favor. The couple lived until their hair was white and thin and their bones ached; and lived long enough to see their grand children’s children come into the world. 

But towards the end, Kilithios became very ill from old age. Death was finally near. Hades was there upon the threshold, knocking at the gate. 

A great tall hill, covered in all manner of flowers and fruit trees, stood the west of the palace. In the hours just before dawn, the Empress and the Emperor left the palace; and step by step they climbed the hill. With the last of their energy they reached the crest and moved to stand at the edge, gazing across the vast city and shining palace below. They planted their feet deep in the earth, put their arms round each other, and turned their faces toward the rising sun. 

When the first beams of sunlight crested the horizon and fell upon that hill, there stood two statues, white marble and glinting in the sun. From stone Kilithios was born, and to stone he returned. But this time he was not alone in his vigil as he watched over the city. 

The gods looked down upon the two lovers, and gave one last gift, the gift of rest. 

Forever and ever. Seculo seculorum. 

~Finis~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Some legends are told  
> Some turn to dust or to gold  
> But you will remember me  
> Remember me for centuries."  
> I was listening to "Centuries" by Fall Out Boy while writing this chapter, for obvious reasons. 
> 
> This story started as just a concept of a statue and then the rest just came pouring out of me. It took me a while to write, but I love the final result very much. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone for reading! Please leave likes and comments so I know what you thought.

**Author's Note:**

> "And all I gave you is gone  
> Tumbled like it was stone  
> Thought we built a dynasty that heaven couldn't shake  
> It all fell down."  
> I was listening to Dynasty by MIIA on repeat while I wrote this. The name really seemed to fit and this is probably one of the songs that works perfectly with Reylo. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone for reading! Please leave likes and comments so I know what you thought. I plan to add the second chapter very soon!


End file.
